Busy times in Adelaide

Well,

Just thought I´d post a very quick blog to let everyone know I´m still alive and while I´m at it, share some of the thoughts that have been passing through my head this week.

Since I came back from Tasmania things really have been crazy in regards to school work. I honestly have to say this is the busiest semester I have ever had at a University level. Here at the University of Adelaide, you get marked for tutorial participation during the semester and you have to hand in assignments or take tests in order to pass the course. This means that the work load is supposed to be pretty even during the semester and you HAVE TO BE active for the whole semester to pass the course... This system has really had some positive effects on me, cause even though I´m having a really tough period right now, I know know it will benefit me later on.

The last days I´ve been spending 8-10 hours a day at the library working my as off to be able to finish all my assignments and right now I´m still in the middle of it all. This week I had to hand in 2 assignments for Marketing and Social Sciences and then deliver one presentation about Core Values (which is really interesting, I´ll get back to it in another post) for my Cross Cultural Communications class.. On top of that, I´ve also got 2 assignments due for next Wednesday + a test in Management... But even though it´s tough it really feels good in some way to be spending so much time reading. I really feel like I´ve pushed myself and become a whole lot more intelligent this week :)

This is sort of work load is quite different from what I´m used to back in Denmark. At ASB it is completely in your own hands weather you show up for lectures, tutorials or even if you hand in assignments or not. You are only strictly encouraged to hand them in but it´s not obligatory. In other words, you don´t get a grade for participation during the semester and all the pressure is in the end of the semester as your final exam is the only thing marked in your final grade. So basically you get away with not really doing anything during the semester as long as you just study really hard for the final exam.

In a way that is an advantage for many students as it gives them the opportunity to develop their own learning style and thereby become more independent and responsible in decision making. However, I find that most students don´t have the actual self discipline it takes to actually do all of their readings and assignments when there is no one there to monitor them... And you can even see that very clearly in the class participation at ASB. From what I have experienced very few people actually show up for all lectures and prepare for the tutorials which means that the quality of the tutorial becomes very bad when only a few of the whole have actually done the readings and are ready to elaborate further on them. And those few prepared individuals are really people I admire for their self-discipline , because I´ll freely admit that I´m NOT one of them. For me to be productive (and that´s not just in regards to school work) I need to have clear goals with clear results in order to be motivated for doing the work. And by that I mean I need to be pushed by something external, like a coach, teacher or just the obligation of having to turn an assignment in, to deliver my best performance.

So I guess where I am getting at with this is that, even though the Australian school system is much harder on me in terms of work load, it suits me much better then the Danish one because it pushes me to be active for the whole semester and not just right in the end of it. Yes people this means I´m really getting smarter by the minute...! Watch out I´ll be a total genius when I return from good old Aussie ;O)

But to top everything, I have not just been busy with school work. At the same time I have really started to try taking my squash training seriously again. Now that I have finally got a professional coach again and playing competitions every week, it really motivates me to want to get better. (Again, my need for external motivation becomes clear:)

The coach, Michael Nash, is really good and has already got me working on a lot of things. But he is also very different from all the other coaches I have had because his main focus is set on active thinking and mentality. That is to get players to think about their tactics, shot selection and thereby outsmart the opponent with the proper game strategy. Which is fantastic because that is definitely the weakest side of my game. Up until now I really haven´t been good at actively thinking about what I am doing, I just played my game and let my natural instincts take control and sometimes it went good and sometimes bad. I always had difficulties with evaluating my game and often just ended up with saying ohh well, had a bad day; bad karma or yeah had a good day. And if I did bad, I always assumed I just needed to improve my technique or get in better shape. BUT, now, it just all looks so much clearer to me... My main problem is that I´m not thinking logically about what I am doing on the court, I´m not selecting the right shots and I´m not thinking about where my opponent is positioned.

And now it just seems so stupid to me that I have been playing squash for so long without giving these things a serious thought... But like some wise man said: "Better late then never!" so as I see it I´m just thrilled to now the help and opportunity to work on these things and hopefully get better...

So all in all, one thing is for sure: Australia really is effecting my critical thinking in a positive way and the future is bright :)

Another thing which has been great this week is the weather. It seems as the summer has returned for a bit. The temperature has been up to 33 all week with blue sky´s. Even though I haven´t been able to enjoy it because of school work it still manages to contribute to a positive state of mind.

But thats all for now... wow this really ended up being a much longer blog then I expected :) (Cris, you must be proud of me! ;)

I still need to post a travel blog about my amazing trip to Tasmania and hopefully I´ll find time in the next days.

Until then, cheer up, be focused and NO WORRIES ! ;)

Over and out...

Squash and Surf !

“Time flies when having fun!”

 This phrase has probably never been as appropriate for my life as right now. Pretty much every day is filled with new and exciting opportunities so you don´t really have the time to get bored… Or at least I don´t :) ... Gosh, I love Australia!

To begin with I have started playing squash down here, which is great! I even found a club, Norwood Squash, which is only 10 minutes bike ride away from Kent Town (where I live). Although, I must admit that I was a bit disappointed about the standard of the squash here in Adelaide as there are not very many active clubs and the few players I´ve met are either “soon to become senior citizens” or just not that good. Perhaps I have been coming at the wrong hours or something but so far I have almost only seen “veteran” players…

However, they do have more active squash club pennants here in South Australia then in Denmark or Iceland. They use a ranking system called Squash Matrix.com where every player is registered and records kept of all their games during the season. There is played in 4. Divisions, which are called State 1, 2, 3 and 4 where, state 1 is the elite division and there are 4 female players per team. My club has a team in all divisions so I went to try out for one of them last Saturday with good results. They seem to think I might have some potential so they have put me as player nr 1. in their team in 2. division and as a reserve player for the elite division team!  So I am very excited about that and it means I will get to play matches 1-2x a week from now on J And additionally I will be taking some private coaching lessons to try to improve my tactics and skills… So hopefully I will return home as a better and improved player ;) 

But the big question is of course: Will my knee be able to keep up? Because of that I have also been spending some time at the fitness centre to keep the muscles around the knee strong and trying to prevent further injuries.

Yesterday I tried surfing for the first time !!  That was SO COOL and definitely something I have to try again! I really understand now why so many people chose to bend their lifestyle around surfing. You just feel so free there surfing on the waves (or at least I am one step closer to imagining how that feels now;)) The weather was very windy though and the current strong so it was quite difficult to paddle against the waves, but totally worth it when you finally caught a good wave to surf with. Before you begin assuming I am a natural born surfer, I have to admit I only managed to stand up properly once and was just very lucky that Annette caught exactly that glory moment on picture!  Had many rides where I either just lied on the board or was on my knees. But still, I guess that’s a start ;)

    

The university started 2 weeks ago and I am on my way into week 3 now. I have to admit that I have not been spending much time studying so far, but at least the lectures and tutorials seem exciting. The work load is a bit heavier here than at ASB as there are many projects and assignments to hand in and they make you participate much more in the tutorials and lectures which I guess is good. The biggest problem is just that I still find my self deeply caught up in the holiday mode, so it is difficult to pick up the academic books when you can go and do soooooo many other things that seem more exciting. But with a little co-ordination and time management I should be just fine…

Like they say so frequently down here: NO WORRIES !  

The next thing on my travel agenda is already next Thursday. Me along with some other Danes and Germans have decided to take a long weekend and visit Tasmania, the home of the Danish crown princess, Mary. And who knows maybe we’ll see some Tasmanian devils… ;)

For now, over and out and remember….

NO WORRIES !

Finally a picture of the flat mates of room 132, Kent Town :)

Finally a grown-up

Again, I apologize for being so lazy at updating this side! But before I write about the previously promised topics I have to tell you about my "possibly life changing experience" I had last night!

Get ready, it´s a big deal! ;)

 

For the FIRST TIME in my life I went to the cinema ALONE !!!  yep, you read that right, me sitting all by my self with my popcorn and coke in a move theatre J hihihi….

It really wasn’t on purpose or anything, it was just a result of a “minor” misunderstanding… ;)

I had decided to go to the cinema with Cris (a Canadian guy who also lives in Kent Town) to see a specific movie which I believed was “He´s just not that into you” so I had really gotten into the chick flick mode and Cris also seemed to be very excited about seeing the movie! 

However when walking to the cinema I can´t understand why Cris is in such a big hurry. According my info, the film wasn´t supposed to start until after 30 min and we had plenty of time! I also got a bit suspicious when Cris asked my whether I had read the book/ the comics the film was made after… (remember I think we are on our way to see a chick flick) However, the moment of truth dramatically occurs when Cris is buying his ticket: 

“One to WATCHMEN” A superhero film I had sworn that I would never see… So my reaction is: “WHAT…! That superhero crap movie ??? “  …  And that is when we discover our little misunderstanding… hehe…  after all it was also a bit strange that Cris was so excited about seeing a chick flick ;)

Nevertheless, in my stubbornness I of course decided to rather go and see my chick flick which resulted in me sitting all alone in the movie theatre… ;O) 

And I have to say, many lonely thoughts fly through your head while sitting there alone. To begin with I thought to myself, damn I must look like “the girl who got stud op on her date” or just “that STINKY INTERNATIONAL STUDENT” … hehe…  But then I began to comfort my self by imagining I was a movie critic or the fact that now I could finally consider myself as a real grown up!

 

But even with those great methods of trying to reassure my self I wasn’t “that stinky international student who went to the cinema alone” my final conclusion is:

Been there, done that and don’t feel the need to do it again!

But at least I learnt that about myself and can now proudly say: “HEY, I´ve tried going to the cinema alone!” ;O)

 

And p.s. thank you Cris for helping me achieve that ;)

Ace Mate !

Wow, time passes 

way to quickly by here in Adelaide! I can’t believe I have been here for almost 2 weeks now ! However at the same time it also feels like a lifetime since I left from home… There have been so many new thing to take in... New places, new people “new” language (Australians do use a lot of slang J) and of course we have been extremely busy since we got here with several things, such as settling down, finding accommodation, buying things we need, exploring the city of Adelaide and our new university campus, meeting

 new people, going to the beach, drinking beer and so on... ;)

The weather has been awesome since we arrived… Sunny and blue sky and no humidity, so you can easily walk around without sweating too much which is perfect! Although it does get a bit cold at night…  But I guess I can live with that ;)

The trip down here was obviously veeeery looong !  I had to take 4 connecting flights to get from Iceland to Adelaide.So the flight route looked like this: Keflavik – Copenhagen – Paris – Singapore – Adelaide and it took all together 40 hours to get here. I know some of you might be thinking that this was a strange choice of connecting flights… It is probably possible to get there more easily by flying to London and fly directly from there to Australia… But whatever… We had bought the tickets very early through Kilroy Travels and they set it up like this… We didn’t know any better at the time…

Another thing is that when you fly basically half way around the globe in 40 hours you also cross several time zones which means that when you arrive very early in the morning at the local time in Australia your body clock thinks it is around midnight the day before..   So it was really a challenge to stay awake during our first day in Adelaide..  But somehow me and Annette managed to stay awake until dinner time and then we hadn’t really slept for three days !!  You can only imagine the jet lack we suffered from the next week…. Hehe…  

 

Gosh, there are still so many things I have to write about…  However I think I’ll stop here from now and try to catch up during the next days… So you’ll get the updates in a smaller dozes and not just all at once (as a communication student I realize that most people only have the

 concentration to read short blogs at a time J )

So stay tuned for the next days to hear about:

• ·      the Royal Adelaide “mental” hospital
  
• ·      Accommodation searching hell
  
• ·      Sun burns
  
• ·      The Kent Town Lodge
  
• ·      And more… J
  

Welcome to my new blog site!

Here you will be able to follow my stay in Australia both verbally and visually for the next 6 months J

In case you are wondering why I choose to write in English, it is simply to create a middle ground for my friends and family around the world so that everybody interested can get a chance to follow my adventures “in-the-land-down-under” J Another reason is to practise and develop a better fluency in my English writing skills. Hope that’s okay by everyone, and PLEASE feel free to comment in any language I understand! J

 

A brief summary:

Me and two other girls (Annette and Caroline) from ASB (Aarhus School of Business) are on our way to Australia for one semester as a part of our study program, BA-English and Business communication, at ASB.

I left Iceland the 11^th February 2009 and will return the 11^th August 2009 and probably be in Denmark again around 1^st September.

The school we will be studying at is called The University of Adelaide and is located in South Australia. (Approx, 900 km away from the fires in Victoria state!)

The courses I will be taking are: Marketing II, Management II, Cross Cultural Communications and Social Sciences of Australia.

We expect to find accommodation when we arrive in Adelaide, but to begin with we will be staying at a temporary accommodation provided by the school.

After the semester finishes in the beginning of July we expect to travel around Australia for about 3 weeks and then on our way home we will use 2 weeks to stop in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok and thereby explore a little of Asia.